BOG has no standing to lecture state universities about shady executive searches

BOG Chairman Mori Hosseini with fellow board members

The FAMU presidential search process was bad, but the one at Florida State University has been plain ugly.

At least the individuals who attempted to ruin the search for FAMU’s 11th president had enough shame to pretend like they weren’t trying to do so. FSU’s presidential search committee seemed ready to simply fast track state Sen. John E. Thrasher into the job before faculty and student protests and negative editorials pressured it to back down.

Now, members of the Florida Board of Governors (BOG) are using the FSU controversy and embarrassing showdown over FAMU President Elmira Mangum’s contract as excuses to help them claim more control over future presidential search processes at public universities. BOG Chairman Mori Hosseini says there should be more BOG members on presidential selection committees.

Shady searches for top executives have become a serious problem in the State University System of Florida (SUS). And the BOG’s two most recent chancellorship searches offer some of the best examples.

Before FSU even officially began accepting presidential nominations, word spread that the job was Thrasher’s to lose. That’s why it was no surprise that FSU didn’t receive any applications from sitting presidents or provosts at major research universities.

This is much like what happened during the BOG’s own chancellorship searches in 2009 and 2013. Just as there were early rumors that FSU wanted to seat a Florida political insider, similar talk surrounded those two BOG-led processes.

Back in 2009, the BOG received a weak pool of applications in the wake of buzz that former Lieutenant Gov. Frank Brogan was already the chancellor-in-waiting. One of the other finalists was Steve MacNamara, who served as chief of staff to Thrasher back when he was the speaker of the Florida House. The BOG also interviewed an ex-chancellor of the Ohio state public universities and a community college system president.

The pool of chancellor candidates was just as poor in 2013 when many believed that a big Florida GOP donor, Marshall Criser, III, was already a shoe-in for the position before the process officially started. There was only one finalist who had a chancellorship-level position, Louisiana higher education commissioner Jim Percell. But he was an embattled official who appeared to be looking for an escape route before his current employment agreement ended. Less than a month after coming up short in the Florida search, he announced that wouldn’t seek a contract renewal in Louisiana.

The BOG’s 2009 and 2013 chancellorship searches prove that it isn’t the least bit qualified to lecture state universities about running aboveboard, competent selection processes that attract high-quality candidates. The Florida Legislature should bring back a former law that barred the BOG from interfering in university-level presidential hiring and evaluation decisions.